Share your recommended modlist! All pointers and tips welcome!

IronPrimarch · December 16, 2016

First things first:

I am a colossal modding noob.

Just figured I'd get that out of the way first.

Also, tl;dr found at bottom.

It's been this insanely long grind to turn my eight year old office desktop into a rig capable of throwing its weight around among my 675+ Steam game library, but it's finally over. My ultimate goal eight years ago was to mod Minecraft (haha, how simple I was), which I did to varying degrees of success, ultimately stymied by weak PC components. So through the grind for better parts, I modded other games. Saint's Row 3, then IV, Dragon Age: Origins, Witcher 2, really anything that could benefit from mods. I'd download the files, painstakingly extract them to where they'd go, stay small to minimize complications, and away I'd go. I was small-time, and from afar I marvelled and envied the script wizards who seemed to mold the very Matrix to their whim.

But all of that changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Skyrim's release was on my wedding day, and it killed me that for an entire honeymoon, I was in the pines in the northern part of my state and not in Tamriel. One of my kinder friends donated the game on Steam after about a year, and I diddled about with an amazing game and ultimately left much of it undone (both vanilla and modding). I was desperate to mod, but the complexity of manual installs was terrifying, so I barely tried. And so Skyrim sat in my library, barely played, a someday project for the future.

That someday is now. I've lurked in this community for perhaps three years, barely saying anything as I have nothing of value to contribute, and for the last three days I've agonized over the choice to post a topic asking for help from you, my figurative idols in the Skyrim modding community. I come to you guys in humility and awe, with nothing to offer but my wit and my ability to learn quickly.

To business.

Some kind anon in another dark reach of the internet introduced me to Mod Organizer, and it's opened the floodgates. It's amazing, and I'm seeing a great deal of success so far in modding, but I'm largely unguided and pretty terrified of incompatibilities. CTDs really infuriate me, and since I'm inexpert on troubleshooting mod load orders and overwrites, I generally start over from scratch. I'm not looking for detailed tutorials (I've found a few of those, I needn't waste your time with them) or even troubleshooting or mentorship. Really, all I'm seeking is the basics of what works for you. I'd love to be where you wizards are at, taking insane pictures of characters you've imbued with your passion without crashing and destroying the game, but there's a distance between here and there.

What I think would really, truly help is a modlist.

I'll post what I've got so far and chart where I'm hoping to go, and with luck, the kind among you will post what you have so I may learn from it and potentially emulate your success.

The List So Far

At this moment, only the basics. Patches, texture packs, STEP (which may or may not be stable), SMIM. If you think one of these mods is a bad choice, you probably know more than I do, so don't hesitate to send me back to the drawing board. If you need me to clarify anything, let me know.

The Future Is (not quite) Now

I'm going for three things, mainly: compatibility, simplicity, and beauty. My modding skills are novice at best, so complexity may overwhelm me, but I'm eager and quick to learn. In the future, I hope to quest and explore as I would in vanilla, but with a few mods to add limited realism and (slightly less limited) BDSM. To quote a well-known barbarian from my early gaming days, "You point, I punch!" Show me how to get there, and I'll be your most promising acolyte -- and most likely in your debt.

Thank you all for your time and help!

tl;dr

new to modding scene, lacking experience, eager to learn adult modding, lacking direction, post what modlist works for you please

also, if this topic is in the wrong place, let me know, my initial post may not be adult in nature but that's the direction I'm hoping to head

lambient1988 · December 16, 2016

Use Mod Organizer!

And share your PC's specs so we can know what your PC can handle.

Wolborg · December 16, 2016

Really, all I'm seeking is the basics of what works for you.

I am not entirely sure I understand your question. "What mods should I use?" sounds like "Which painting I ought to buy?"

The way I see it, the starting point is: what do you want to achieve? What is there in the vanilla game that you would like improved?

For example, when I started modding and wondered which one to try first, I set myself a goal: to get the dead female bodies naked instead of in underwear. I mean, that's something which can easily be verified: it's not difficult to encounter a dead woman in the early stage of the game, and you can see whether she's naked or in underwear. Searching for a possible answer, I quickly came across CBBE and found that it actually got them naked. Goal reached. The next goal was: get the dead men naked as well. I found and installed Schlongs of Skyrim which was a bit trickier because it required other mods to work. But soon I had rid the dead men of underwear as well. And so on.

I could certainly share with you the list of mods with which I played my last game (300+ hours) but I am not happy with it any longer, so I wouldn't actually recommend it as it is. That is why I have been testing a large number of mods in the last three months. The work is nearing completion and I can share you with my current mod list as well if you want to, but it is not yet final.

To sum up: I recommend to start by defining something you want to achieve – for instance, getting a larger number of birds, or making houses in Winterhold look nicer, or improving bow shooting accuracy – and then look for the ways of achieving it.

ButchDiavolo · December 16, 2016

What a charming call for help

Anyway, you are using MO, so that is a very good start.

You don't have Dawnguard... Why?! Next time there is a sale on Steam, you might want to get it (cheap). Dawnguard adds new objects, textures etc that quite a few mods use.

Also you discovered STEP, another good start. However, STEP is a modlist that is an overhaul (mainly textures) that has many, MANY more mods. What you have installed is basically just the "end stage", a merged "patch" with a few mods in it. Check out the STEP website for more information. Even if you don't want to follow the STEP list completely, it will still give you good information about how to set up Skyrim for more stability. And the modlist on the site has many "gems" that you may want to use. So just have a look.

As for "what mods to use"... As Wolborg said, that is very personal, depending on your own taste. You should look around and see what is available and what you want your Skyrim to look like. I personally use most (not all) of the STEP suggested mods, plus some NPC overhauls to make the people of Skyrim look less like, how do I put this mildly... warmed up shit. But again, all this is based on my personal preferences.

One final tip: whenever you post something on the forum, be sure to click on the "Follow this topic" button at the top right of the screen. That way you will get notifications whenever someone replies to your post. The notifications are under the golden bell icon at the ultimate top of the page.

IronPrimarch · December 17, 2016

Use Mod Organizer!

And share your PC's specs so we can know what your PC can handle.

Mod Organizer is the best!

PC specs to follow.

Intel i7-6700K

16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 RAM 2133MHz

Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 4GB VDDR5 G1 Gaming OC Edition (don't judge me, I inherited it for free)

Asus Maximus VII Hero Z170 motherboard LGA1151

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2TB HDD

SanDisk Ultra II 240GB SSD

Corsair CX850M PSU

Antec case, Intel heat sink

The starting point is: what do you want to achieve? What is there in the vanilla game that you would like improved?

In truth, I anticipated this response, because other, similarly green modders requesting direction have gotten the same. It's mainly why I asked for modlists -- so I could see for myself what would work for me based upon what works for you and (hopefully) waste less of your time. But I really appreciate the question! Let me clarify a bit where I'm hoping to take my game.

Beauty is chief among my goals. Every screenshot posted here, the booru, forum boards, and the far reaches of the internet really strain the ability to decipher the difference between Skyrim and advanced IRL cosplay. It doesn't have to be 110% realistic (I've got my eye on RealVision ENB, but I'm very open to suggestion), but it has to be pretty.

Naughty content is, I think, my secondary goal. It's not something I want to be smacked with in the face everywhere I look, but several more subtle additions would be brilliant. Ever since the beginning, for instance, I've wanted exactly what you described: no underwear. It seems absolutely ridiculous that, in this fantasy realm, everyone shops at the same Maidenform for bras made of leather. Beyond that, I've got no eye for the guys, but it stands to reason they'd be wearing trousers and not much else as well, so I think I'd follow your exact path, with the inclusion of BDSM mods.

But the thing is, as much as I lurk, I just don't know what mods are out there because there's a flood of them. Some are buggy. Some look like garbage. And there's a great deal of talk revolving around which ENB is best, whether CBBE outranks UNPB in terms of compatibility, and so many other things that I simply don't know and don't want to bore you all with questions about. More birds would be nice (where the heck are they, anyway?), pretty houses would be amazing, but again, as there are so many aspects of Skyrim that one can alter in part or entirety that I was hoping to merely peek in upon your worlds and see how you've done it, possibly even learn from it. In fact, I'd still love to see your current modlist! But ultimately, don't feel obligated to hold my hand. And whatever aid you offer, know that I'm thankful for it.

You don't have Dawnguard... Why?!

Also you discovered STEP, another good start. However, STEP is a modlist that is an overhaul (mainly textures) that has many, MANY more mods. What you have installed is basically just the "end stage", a merged "patch" with a few mods in it. Check out the STEP website for more information. Even if you don't want to follow the STEP list completely, it will still give you good information about how to set up Skyrim for more stability. And the modlist on the site has many "gems" that you may want to use. So just have a look.

Because I hate vampires. :lol: But you're right, I've seen a lot of compatibility issues without Dawnguard that lock me out of some pretty impressive mods (like SkyFalls & Skymills, for example, and STEP was complaining every step of the way too). So I might have to pick it up, and since I'm impatient, I'll probably hit up a greymarket like G2A. Basically, I've got no interest in vampiric nonsense (werewolf either), but if need be, I'll get the only DLC I don't actually have haha.

I had some trouble following what you had to say about STEP, but I think I gathered that it's not just a stability patch but also a compilation of optimization mods? I thought that's what it was at first, but I didn't really see a vast difference -- though I haven't played much since I installed it. Also, anything saying to edit the INI file scares me haha... but I'm willing to try.

ButchDiavolo · December 17, 2016

[snipped for brevity]

Because I hate vampires. But you're right, I've seen a lot of compatibility issues without Dawnguard that lock me out of some pretty impressive mods (like SkyFalls & Skymills, for example, and STEP was complaining every step of the way too). So I might have to pick it up, and since I'm impatient, I'll probably hit up a greymarket like G2A. Basically, I've got no interest in vampiric nonsense (werewolf either), but if need be, I'll get the only DLC I don't actually have haha.

I had some trouble following what you had to say about STEP, but I think I gathered that it's not just a stability patch but also a compilation of optimization mods? I thought that's what it was at first, but I didn't really see a vast difference -- though I haven't played much since I installed it. Also, anything saying to edit the INI file scares me haha... but I'm willing to try.

[mental note: don't respond to messages while still half asleep]

The thing with Dawnguard is that it adds resources. I have never played the Dawnguard questline because it doesn't really interest me either. But it adds things... and more things means more variety and variety is good. Well, I think it is anyway.

About STEP: I saw you have the STEP HF plugin installed. What I attempted to say is that STEP is a whole suggested modlist/ game setup aimed at making Skyrim look and perform better. The STEP guide starts with how to best setup your system and game (yes, INI files!) to prepare it for modding. For me personally that part is essential. The whole modlist that follows is aimed at further improving performance and beautifying Skyrim. So the parts you see on the Nexus site (i.e. the plugin you installed) is just a tiny tip of the iceberg. Hence my suggestion to check out the STEP guide and see what you can learn from it. If nothing else, it might give you ideas for mods you may want to use.

As far as editing INI files go: always make a backup first of the original INI-files. And follow the directions to the letter. The INI "tweaks" suggested by STEP (for example), you can basically just copy and paste. And if all else fails, you can always delete the INI files and start Skyrim. That will give you brand new shiny and standard INI files. So there is always the option to undo and "damage" done.

Modding tip: First get Skyrim to look the way you want. Once you are happy with the results, you can start thinking about adding naughty mods. I find that adding the naughty mods last to the list (right pane in MO) causes the least amount of trouble. And last of all in your mod list should be the skeleton mod (XPMS or XPMSE)

IronPrimarch · December 17, 2016

[mental note: don't respond to messages while still half asleep]

The thing with Dawnguard is that it adds resources. I have never played the Dawnguard questline because it doesn't really interest me either. But it adds things... and more things means more variety and variety is good. Well, I think it is anyway.

About STEP: I saw you have the STEP HF plugin installed. What I attempted to say is that STEP is a whole suggested modlist/ game setup aimed at making Skyrim look and perform better. The STEP guide starts with how to best setup your system and game (yes, INI files!) to prepare it for modding. For me personally that part is essential. The whole modlist that follows is aimed at further improving performance and beautifying Skyrim. So the parts you see on the Nexus site (i.e. the plugin you installed) is just a tiny tip of the iceberg. Hence my suggestion to check out the STEP guide and see what you can learn from it. If nothing else, it might give you ideas for mods you may want to use.

As far as editing INI files go: always make a backup first of the original INI-files. And follow the directions to the letter. The INI "tweaks" suggested by STEP (for example), you can basically just copy and paste. And if all else fails, you can always delete the INI files and start Skyrim. That will give you brand new shiny and standard INI files. So there is always the option to undo and "damage" done.

Modding tip: First get Skyrim to look the way you want. Once you are happy with the results, you can start thinking about adding naughty mods. I find that adding the naughty mods last to the list (right pane in MO) causes the least amount of trouble. And last of all in your mod list should be the skeleton mod (XPMS or XPMSE)

Damn. All right. Guess I'll buy DG tonight then.

STEP Guide. On it. It's massive, but I'm liking most of what I see.

INI files: noted. I have a backup of the basic Skyrim files, so the concept is similar. Thanks for the tip, it makes things slightly less scary haha.

Appearance: Thanks for the direction, I'll start on that. HOWEVER... will I end up locking myself out of certain naughty mods with certain appearance mod incompatibilities? That's the driving fear here, really, and why I came to you guys instead of lurking in the background.

Yuriwa · December 17, 2016

will I end up locking myself out of certain naughty mods with certain appearance mod incompatibilities?

I'm pretty sure I'm not using the quote function right. First post, as you can see. Been a while since I posted on a forum of this type at all.

Anyway, the short answer to that question is no. Not if you're using mod organizer (MO), which I can see that you are. Apart from the fact that you could install, say, 2 different mods that do the same thing, and take turns checking/un-checking their box in MO to test each one out, you can also use MO's profile function to essentially create different mod experiences. Now, I think you may have been pointed in that direction already by way of the STEP guide, but there is a guy named Gopher on Youtube who's done an excellent tutorial series on using Mod Organizer, including on how to use different profiles. But anything you install using MO will basically only exist in MO's directory, and only so long as its box is checked.

A note on using MO: You should quickly grasp that you largely let a program called "LOOT" (which you should set up to run through MO like in the STEP guide or my link) decide in which order to load your plugins (the right pane in MO, plugins tab) unless a mod specifies otherwise, in contrast to the left/main pane where you will manually determine the load order of assets such as textures, where it is mainly a matter of you deciding which assets you want to win out.

Btw, you really should get all of the expansions. For compatibility's sake and because they add a lot of assets that mods use. I personally have never done the Dawnguard quest line myself, either.

As to a mod list, well, someone put it well above, it's pretty personal. But you'll generally want to tackle a few categories and find the best mods in said categories and see if that works for you. I tend to go over these in order of what I must have to run the game to what simply adds a certain flavor to the game and I might change eventually.

Mods that are fixes and patches, such as USLEEP but also things like "dead body collision fix" and "Fuz ro Doh".
Mods that make the game prettier, such as SMIM and ELFX and other realism mods. Thiss is where I go light, because I'm running the game on a toaster, but the sky(rim?)'s the limit.
Quality of life mods that I find I can no longer do without, like "the joy of perspective", "racemenu", "alternate start LAL" etc.
Mods that will constitute the look of my character and NPCs. Invariably you will want to choose a skeleton (I think everyone's default must be XP32MSE), a nude body replacer (CBBE and UUNP are most popular I think) and then your choice of compatible body textures, hair, eyes, brows, etc. If you want sex in your game, your choice between Shlongs of Skyrim or Atlas belongs in this category, too.
Mods for animation. FNIS is always necessary to first enable custom animations, and you must learn how to use that first, at which point you can add whichever animations you like/can find. ZazAnimationpack is the naughty animations starter pack, basically, but there are some others .Sexlab and SL Aroused implement them into the game.
Mods which add gameplay elements. Scripts, basically. And also assets to use with those. For BDSM, you install first the 3 Devious Devices mods, and then your choice of mods which use them in game. Cursed Loot and Captured Dreams are some of the more elaborate ones. You'll possible want a Death Alternative mod, depending on your tastes.

Whelp, that's a start. It was a train of thought style write-up, so, I'm sorry if I mentioned things which you had already figured out.

I log the steps I take when modding Skyrim anew so that if I ever take a break from it I know what the hell I was thinking and where to pick up again. It's my mod list (of that particular modding venture) plus notes on my reasoning for including them. Helps me troubleshoot immensely. I recommend doing it, and can share mine if you want.

Edited for readability. Jesus.

Wolborg · December 17, 2016

Beauty [---] ENB [---]

Naughty content is [---] not something I want to be smacked with in the face everywhere I look, but several more subtle additions would be brilliant.

[---] I'd still love to see your current modlist!

Making Skyrim look (even) more beautiful – now that's a whole world to explore. You start with little things, see how they work and then move on to bigger things. I guess when you look at my modlists you will see some names that are self-explanatory, and I can comment on those that aren't.

Keep in mind that when you see a mod's sample screenshots posted by the author, and you install that mod, you will often not achieve the same degree of beauty because you are not using the same other mods the author is using to enhance the beautifulness of things. That said, there are many ways to make your Skyrim look a lot more beautiful.

ENB is still too complicated for me. I'll go without it for the time being.

The essential difference between CBBE and UNP is that UNP has more natural-looking breasts but they are, in my opinion, a bit too small. They would be fine in the real world, but in the game where I can only look and not touch I want to actually have something to look at.

As to the subtle naughtiness here and there, the first thing you need is a mod that gives the breasts the ability to bounce. (When you install only CBBE, the breasts will be static, as if they were extremely firm.) It'll be visible to a certain degree even when the woman is wearing clothes. It requires something with HDT or BBP in the mod's title. Making two mods – one that creates the naked body and the other one that makes the breasts bounce – work together is done by trial and error, but it's not too difficult.

modlists.rar

IronPrimarch · December 17, 2016

[truncated for brevity]

A note on using MO: You should quickly grasp that you largely let a program called "LOOT" (which you should set up to run through MO like in the STEP guide or my link) decide in which order to load your plugins (the right pane in MO, plugins tab) unless a mod specifies otherwise, in contrast to the left/main pane where you will manually determine the load order of assets such as textures, where it is mainly a matter of you deciding which assets you want to win out.

Btw, you really should get all of the expansions. For compatibility's sake and because they add a lot of assets that mods use. I personally have never done the Dawnguard quest line myself, either.

As to a mod list, well, someone put it well above, it's pretty personal. But you'll generally want to tackle a few categories and find the best mods in said categories and see if that works for you. I tend to go over these in order of what I must have to run the game to what simply adds a certain flavor to the game and I might change eventually.

Mods that are fixes and patches, such as USLEEP but also things like "dead body collision fix" and "Fuz ro Doh".

Mods that make the game prettier, such as SMIM and ELFX and other realism mods. Thiss is where I go light, because I'm running the game on a toaster, but the sky(rim?)'s the limit.

Quality of life mods that I find I can no longer do without, like "the joy of perspective", "racemenu", "alternate start LAL" etc.

Mods that will constitute the look of my character and NPCs. Invariably you will want to choose a skeleton (I think everyone's default must be XP32MSE), a nude body replacer (CBBE and UUNP are most popular I think) and then your choice of compatible body textures, hair, eyes, brows, etc. If you want sex in your game, your choice between Shlongs of Skyrim or Atlas belongs in this category, too.

Mods for animation. FNIS is always necessary to first enable custom animations, and you must learn how to use that first, at which point you can add whichever animations you like/can find. ZazAnimationpack is the naughty animations starter pack, basically, but there are some others .Sexlab and SL Aroused implement them into the game.

Mods which add gameplay elements. Scripts, basically. And also assets to use with those. For BDSM, you install first the 3 Devious Devices mods, and then your choice of mods which use them in game. Cursed Loot and Captured Dreams are some of the more elaborate ones. You'll possible want a Death Alternative mod, depending on your tastes.

Whelp, that's a start. It was a train of thought style write-up, so, I'm sorry if I mentioned things which you had already figured out.

I log the steps I take when modding Skyrim anew so that if I ever take a break from it I know what the hell I was thinking and where to pick up again. It's my mod list (of that particular modding venture) plus notes on my reasoning for including them. Helps me troubleshoot immensely. I recommend doing it, and can share mine if you want.

Edited for readability. Jesus.

Yeah, I've been letting LOOT organize load order, it's a breeze. Whoever made MO needs a raise or donation or something.

Dawnguard acquired. Though I dragged my heels, I now have all DLC.

When you speak of modlists, do you mean personal or personalized? Stupid difference, I know, but I don't want to intrude on someone's personal space if they don't feel like showing me what they're up to haha. Regardless, I'm not one to judge, given my unorthodox tastes.

I was eyeballing USLEEP but heard it had compatibility issues. I'll dig deeper. As for D'oh, this has immense support, but I don't understand why. I love hearing the dragon shouts and most everything else. I'm also myopic, so sound plays a gigantic role in everything I do, in-game or IRL. ::EDIT:: Unvoiced NPCs in Alt Start - LAL. Got it.
SMIM is gonna be mandatory haha, those meshes just can't be beat! Not having Dawnguard locked me out of ELFX, but now that I have it, I guess I'll see to it.
Joy of Perspective looks indispensible, but the complexity puts me off. RaceMenu is a similar story: I'll most likely be importing someone else's presets, because I'm rubbish at character creation. Thank heavens it's a simple install.
Noted. I have yet to determine the differences between CBBE and UUNP (and from what I gather, there are more where those came from) and which one will be simpler to install with the most options available. I know about SoS, but what's Atlas?
FNIS was definitely going to be part of the equation. I need to do more research on SexLab though.
Script installation isn't intimidating, but editing scripts and creating plug-ins is probably going to be my next major hurdle. Since my last reply, I've edited the INI for STEP prep, so my confidence grows! But assets will be a breeze, I think, and I've got my eye on Devious Devices and Co. I don't think Death Alternatives will win a permanent place in my modlist, but I'll definitely be trying it.

No need to apologize! All this help you're offering? I'm eating it up. And I'd love to read your notes, too!

Off to work, else I'd be implementing your advice and replying to Wolborg. Sorry, Wolborg, duty calls! :lol:

Nergui · December 17, 2016

USLEEP has no compatibility issues with the vanilla game and does an excellent job of fixing a lot of gamebreaking and non-gamebreaking issues. It's poorly built mods that overwrite those fixes that cause the problems.

I recommend these for after you have played through Skyrim a few times

The Great Forest of Whiterun Hold

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67063/?

Basically, it changes the Whiterun region from tundra to boreal forest so it looks like the Falkreath region. These are compatability patches for some mods that modify that region.

Skyrim Underground

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/75004/?

Puts a vast dungeon complex under skyrim.

(requires Dawnguard and Dragonborn)

The Cutting Room Floor

http://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3824-relz-cutting-room-floor/

Completes and enables unfinished vanilla content.

(requires all DLC)

Yuriwa · December 18, 2016

[truncated for brevity]

Yeah, I've been letting LOOT organize load order, it's a breeze. Whoever made MO needs a raise or donation or something.

Dawnguard acquired. Though I dragged my heels, I now have all DLC.

When you speak of modlists, do you mean personal or personalized? Stupid difference, I know, but I don't want to intrude on someone's personal space if they don't feel like showing me what they're up to haha. Regardless, I'm not one to judge, given my unorthodox tastes.

I was eyeballing USLEEP but heard it had compatibility issues. I'll dig deeper. As for D'oh, this has immense support, but I don't understand why. I love hearing the dragon shouts and most everything else. I'm also myopic, so sound plays a gigantic role in everything I do, in-game or IRL. ::EDIT:: Unvoiced NPCs in Alt Start - LAL. Got it.

SMIM is gonna be mandatory haha, those meshes just can't be beat! Not having Dawnguard locked me out of ELFX, but now that I have it, I guess I'll see to it.

Joy of Perspective looks indispensible, but the complexity puts me off. RaceMenu is a similar story: I'll most likely be importing someone else's presets, because I'm rubbish at character creation. Thank heavens it's a simple install.

Noted. I have yet to determine the differences between CBBE and UUNP (and from what I gather, there are more where those came from) and which one will be simpler to install with the most options available. I know about SoS, but what's Atlas?

FNIS was definitely going to be part of the equation. I need to do more research on SexLab though.

Script installation isn't intimidating, but editing scripts and creating plug-ins is probably going to be my next major hurdle. Since my last reply, I've edited the INI for STEP prep, so my confidence grows! But assets will be a breeze, I think, and I've got my eye on Devious Devices and Co. I don't think Death Alternatives will win a permanent place in my modlist, but I'll definitely be trying it.

No need to apologize! All this help you're offering? I'm eating it up. And I'd love to read your notes, too!

Off to work, else I'd be implementing your advice and replying to Wolborg. Sorry, Wolborg, duty calls!

When I say personal, I'm not saying that it's none of your business, but rather that it will be up to your tastes. That's just what a lot of mods come down to -- whether or not you like the flavor they add. Or, in certain cases, whether or not you're willing to meet that mod's requirements, because there are some hoops to jump through sometimes. Plenty of room for unorthodox on this board, btw.

Fuz ro doh doesn't silence shouts as far as I know. In any case, that isn't its purpose. As I understand it, any mod which introduces dialog that isn't voiced into the game will run into problems without Doh installed. The dialog would instantly skip through to the end, unless the mod author included some "silent voice" files. Fuz Ro Doh is a one stop solution for all of these mods. The best example of a mod which needs Doh installed is probably Alternate Start Live Another Life, and it's extremely popular. I wouldn't play without it, myself. Plenty of other mods add dialog to the game.

In my experience, at least using MO, The Joy of Perspective hasn't given me any trouble. I think some of the warnings on its page are more pertinent to NMM users. Pretty sure you just:

Install TJOP and then install XPMSE with the TJOP Patch (the one checkbox).
In MO, open skyrim.ini (the jigsaw icon up top) and add the following code at the end:

[Camera]
bDisableAutoVanityMode=1
(Disables 3rd person spinning camera on long idle times - set to 0 to enable)
fFirstPersonSittingAngleLimit=1.2

fFirstPersonSittingRotationSpeed=0.0390

I use Racemenu, but not extensively. It is a requirement for certain things, and it actually contains a file which in turn is a requirement for some things. Enhanced Character Edit seems to be the alternative, but I haven't tried it. It can be a powerful tool but I mostly just use it to access new hairstyles, eyes, brows, etc...that I've added through mods. I ignore most of the tabs, and the character creation mesh thing. I also use the presets tab to save presets. Btw, something I had to figure out: when you save a preset in Racemenu, it goes into your MO's overwrite folder. You can drag and drop it from there into your Racemenu mod. What's also handy is that you can bring up Racemenu in-game by typing showracemenu in the console.

CBBE is more curvy, and UNP more realistic, basically. There are some more implications, such as the mods created with either one of them in mind, but both are popular enough to have plenty of options. Mostly this is about which body textures you can add, and which armors have been adapted to fit the body of your choice. I believe CBBE is somewhat more popular, and it's certainly easy to use. And at this point you may come into contact with a program called "Bodyslide". It can be a bit confusing, but it can be used to "easily' adapt armors, and assets such as the devious devices, to your body shape, whether you are using CBBE or UNP, and it can also be used to add physics (bounce/jiggle, mostly) to TNA.

Shape Atlas for Men is (was?) an alternative to SOS, but I haven't tried it.

Sexlab is an easy install IIRC, although you have to read its page carefully. Mainly, it has an elaborate MCM menu that you will have to learn to perform some basic functions with. In essence, you use it to add animations to your game. The first animations you will want to try this with is the ZazAnimationPack. It's a pretty simple matter of turning on SL in the MCM, and clicking rebuild/register animations. And of course, whenever you install animations (which in MO means you've checked the box) you have to run FNIS once. And drag the resulting files from the overwrite folder into your FNIS mod.

When I said scripts, I didn't mean that there was any coding to be done. Mods that are a tiny download are usually simply scripts that cause certain events to happen within the game, using available assets, and that's all I meant. For example there are mods which will make NPCs approach your character if they're visibly wearing a collar, or restraints, and engage them in a dialog (of a nature you might guess at). Since these kinds of mods add situations to your game, I tend to add them into my modded game last. They can be heavy on the processor if you have a lot of them, too, so keep that in mind when such events are suddenly a bit slow to trigger.

Death Alternative mods just make defeat in combat the beginning of something, rather than the end. It can be an interesting way to tie some of the naughty mods to gameplay, and will incentivize you to actually play the game, maybe even with some combat enhancement mods.

Well, that's about it from me, for now. Further questions, just ask.

Wolborg · December 18, 2016

Sorry, Wolborg, duty calls!

That's all right. We all should occasionally take time to smell the, um, office. ;-)

I just wanted to let you know about this website I just noticed. Maybe you would like to take a look at it:

http://skyrimgems.com/

I don't think they have any information on BDSM you mentioned earlier. However, I intend to do some research on that subject myself in the nearest future and I'll let you know when I come up with something interesting.

IronPrimarch · December 18, 2016

Keep in mind that when you see a mod's sample screenshots posted by the author, and you install that mod, you will often not achieve the same degree of beauty because you are not using the same other mods the author is using to enhance the beautifulness of things. That said, there are many ways to make your Skyrim look a lot more beautiful.

ENB is still too complicated for me. I'll go without it for the time being.

The essential difference between CBBE and UNP is that UNP has more natural-looking breasts but they are, in my opinion, a bit too small. They would be fine in the real world, but in the game where I can only look and not touch I want to actually have something to look at.

As to the subtle naughtiness here and there, the first thing you need is a mod that gives the breasts the ability to bounce. (When you install only CBBE, the breasts will be static, as if they were extremely firm.) It'll be visible to a certain degree even when the woman is wearing clothes. It requires something with HDT or BBP in the mod's title. Making two mods – one that creates the naked body and the other one that makes the breasts bounce – work together is done by trial and error, but it's not too difficult.

I've noticed that about screenshots. Duly noted.

If ENB's too complex for YOU... that doesn't bode well for me lol. But I mean... it's one of the most essential beauty mods, no?

A note on my preference for breasts: I'm okay with small. In real life, I actually prefer them. Ultimately, I don't think I care what size they are so long as they're shaped well, and well-shaped larger breasts are pretty hard to come by because of the effects of gravity. Conversely, if they're large, the jiggle/bounce we've been discussing is mandatory.

Are breasts static with the installation of solely UNP as well? If the effect is different, that might make the decision. I was under the impression XP32 provides bounce -- would that replace HDT? Or does XP32 focus chiefly on the skeleton whereas the mods you mentioned focus more on gravity and force effects on soft tissue? As for trial and error, so long as I don't have to reset to zero, I'm willing to try anything haha. Thanks so much for your modlist! I'll be studying it a bit.

USLEEP has no compatibility issues with the vanilla game and does an excellent job of fixing a lot of gamebreaking and non-gamebreaking issues. It's poorly built mods that overwrite those fixes that cause the problems.

I recommend these for after you have played through Skyrim a few times

The Great Forest of Whiterun Hold

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67063/?

Basically, it changes the Whiterun region from tundra to boreal forest so it looks like the Falkreath region. These are compatability patches for some mods that modify that region.

Skyrim Underground

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/75004/?

Puts a vast dungeon complex under skyrim.

(requires Dawnguard and Dragonborn)

The Cutting Room Floor

http://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3824-relz-cutting-room-floor/

Completes and enables unfinished vanilla content.

(requires all DLC)

USLEEP: Noted. I'll keep a close eye on incompatibilities with crap mods.

Great Forest: Dude, that's awesome. I'm tempted to disregard your advice and try that immediately lol.

Underground: Holy shit. I honestly think there's enough for me to do in this game to keep me occupied for a very, very long time, but if I run out of things to do, you can be sure I'll try this.

Cutting Room Floor: If all this stuff was meant to be in the game from the start, would the experience suffer overmuch from its inclusion on a first playthrough?

Fuz ro doh doesn't silence shouts as far as I know. In any case, that isn't its purpose. As I understand it, any mod which introduces dialog that isn't voiced into the game will run into problems without Doh installed. The dialog would instantly skip through to the end, unless the mod author included some "silent voice" files. Fuz Ro Doh is a one stop solution for all of these mods. The best example of a mod which needs Doh installed is probably Alternate Start Live Another Life, and it's extremely popular. I wouldn't play without it, myself. Plenty of other mods add dialog to the game.

In my experience, at least using MO, The Joy of Perspective hasn't given me any trouble. I think some of the warnings on its page are more pertinent to NMM users. Pretty sure you just:

Install TJOP and then install XPMSE with the TJOP Patch (the one checkbox).

In MO, open skyrim.ini (the jigsaw icon up top) and add the following code at the end:

[Camera]
bDisableAutoVanityMode=1
(Disables 3rd person spinning camera on long idle times - set to 0 to enable)
fFirstPersonSittingAngleLimit=1.2

fFirstPersonSittingRotationSpeed=0.0390

I use Racemenu, but not extensively. It is a requirement for certain things, and it actually contains a file which in turn is a requirement for some things. Enhanced Character Edit seems to be the alternative, but I haven't tried it. It can be a powerful tool but I mostly just use it to access new hairstyles, eyes, brows, etc...that I've added through mods. I ignore most of the tabs, and the character creation mesh thing. I also use the presets tab to save presets. Btw, something I had to figure out: when you save a preset in Racemenu, it goes into your MO's overwrite folder. You can drag and drop it from there into your Racemenu mod. What's also handy is that you can bring up Racemenu in-game by typing showracemenu in the console.

CBBE is more curvy, and UNP more realistic, basically. There are some more implications, such as the mods created with either one of them in mind, but both are popular enough to have plenty of options. Mostly this is about which body textures you can add, and which armors have been adapted to fit the body of your choice. I believe CBBE is somewhat more popular, and it's certainly easy to use. And at this point you may come into contact with a program called "Bodyslide". It can be a bit confusing, but it can be used to "easily' adapt armors, and assets such as the devious devices, to your body shape, whether you are using CBBE or UNP, and it can also be used to add physics (bounce/jiggle, mostly) to TNA.

Shape Atlas for Men is (was?) an alternative to SOS, but I haven't tried it.

Sexlab is an easy install IIRC, although you have to read its page carefully. Mainly, it has an elaborate MCM menu that you will have to learn to perform some basic functions with. In essence, you use it to add animations to your game. The first animations you will want to try this with is the ZazAnimationPack. It's a pretty simple matter of turning on SL in the MCM, and clicking rebuild/register animations. And of course, whenever you install animations (which in MO means you've checked the box) you have to run FNIS once. And drag the resulting files from the overwrite folder into your FNIS mod.

When I said scripts, I didn't mean that there was any coding to be done. Mods that are a tiny download are usually simply scripts that cause certain events to happen within the game, using available assets, and that's all I meant. For example there are mods which will make NPCs approach your character if they're visibly wearing a collar, or restraints, and engage them in a dialog (of a nature you might guess at). Since these kinds of mods add situations to your game, I tend to add them into my modded game last. They can be heavy on the processor if you have a lot of them, too, so keep that in mind when such events are suddenly a bit slow to trigger.

Death Alternative mods just make defeat in combat the beginning of something, rather than the end. It can be an interesting way to tie some of the naughty mods to gameplay, and will incentivize you to actually play the game, maybe even with some combat enhancement mods.

Well, that's about it from me, for now. Further questions, just ask.

Seeing as I religiously employ subtitles anyway, would FRD be redundant?

If TJOP is that simple, I'll throw it in there. I've already performed the STEP tweaks for the INIs, so I feel semi-confident about this.

CBBE vs. UNP: Damn, that actually makes the choice harder haha. I always preferred realistic bodies to gratuitous curves, but if CBBE is more popular, then more outfits will be available for that. Looks like I'll probably have to try each one.

Thanks for clarifying scripts. Death Alternative mods, I imagine, are the post-fight equivalent of the fight/pay/jail interaction. Sounds very worth looking into. What are your recommendations for combat enhancement, if you have any?

Sorry for all the questions haha! There's only so much I've been able to glean by lurking, so I'm internalizing every bit of advice I can get.

That's all right. We all should occasionally take time to smell the, um, office. ;-)

I just wanted to let you know about this website I just noticed. Maybe you would like to take a look at it:

http://skyrimgems.com/

I don't think they have any information on BDSM you mentioned earlier. However, I intend to do some research on that subject myself in the nearest future and I'll let you know when I come up with something interesting.

Hey, yeah! A lot of the mods I've been looking at on the Nexus have a GEMS splash, it never occurred to me to look into it. Thanks for the recommendation. And the help! You guys are every bit the wizards I thought you were.

Wolborg · December 19, 2016

ENB's [---] one of the most essential beauty mods, no?

I think the first step is to correct things that are visibly wrong, such as making nights darker, the rain to look more believable and the people to look nicer. When nothing is outright disturbing anymore, the next step is to start enhancing things. For instance, I stumbled over a mod Get Snowy that makes people's bodies covered with snowflakes when they walk around in the snowfall. Other mods improve lanterns, roads, buildings, birds. My beauty requirements are pretty much met without ENB – which, according to my superficial knowledge, can harm performance, so I'll better concentrate my efforts on other things. Which doesn't mean that your preferences couldn't be different. That's what modding is all about – creating the Skyrim you want.

*Gameplayer* · December 19, 2016

I went with UUNP over everything else for bodies.

An every one of the most popular outfits that came out recently was for UNP first and this does make a huge difference for how well they work for end-user.

IronPrimarch · December 19, 2016

I think the first step is to correct things that are visibly wrong, such as making nights darker, the rain to look more believable and the people to look nicer. When nothing is outright disturbing anymore, the next step is to start enhancing things. For instance, I stumbled over a mod Get Snowy that makes people's bodies covered with snowflakes when they walk around in the snowfall. Other mods improve lanterns, roads, buildings, birds. My beauty requirements are pretty much met without ENB – which, according to my superficial knowledge, can harm performance, so I'll better concentrate my efforts on other things. Which doesn't mean that your preferences couldn't be different. That's what modding is all about – creating the Skyrim you want.

Understood. I've noticed there's quite a few people who don't care to use ENB. Personally, I've got my eye set on one in particular, and ENBoost is required for the STEP patches, so now it's just a matter of deciding when to take the plunge and fiddle with it. But Get Snowy sounds like just the immersive type of thing I'm looking for, too. And regarding performance, I really want to push my rig to the limits to see what it's capable of, so I'm not worried about that just yet haha.

I went with UUNP over everything else for bodies.

An every one of the most popular outfits that came out recently was for UNP first and this does make a huge difference for how well they work for end-user.

Oh thank goodness. I was eyeballing outfits yesterday and SO MANY are for UNP. 24 pages on Nexus vs. 13 for CBBE. I'll probably still try both, but I'm thinking UNP will be my more permanent choice. Thanks for the reassurance!

::UPDATE:: I've mostly completed STEP prep (step 2E of 3) and everything seems mostly stable and appreciably improved. My only problem so far was a weird conflict between SKSE and Elys Alt-F4, but I came to realize Elys isn't required if you've installed ENBoost. Which was a previous step. Derp. Now I'm biting my nails over XP32 and its reliance on FNIS and my reluctance to run even more third-party executables... especially one with as many other dependent mods as FNIS.

BrimstoneOmega · December 19, 2016

I suppose I can throw in a bit of my life lessons learned in Skyrim modding, though I'm definitely not an expert or anything.

---General improvements to the game---

-USLEEP- Absolutely needed. There are no incompatibilities as long as this is like the very first thing in your left hand list.

-SKYUI- See you already have that.

-Fud Ro Doh- Others have mentioned this, but I don't know if they explained it well enough. It does not change any of the normal behavior of the games shouts or dialogue. What it does is something similar to FNIS only it involves custom shouts or dialogue. What it most noticeably does is gives NPCs the ability to speak in text format only; i.e. they will talk to you, their mouths move but no sound comes out, instead you get subtitles. Like I said this changes nothing about normal game play, but if a mod were to add dialogue somewhere this lets you actually see/read it. Have you noticed in playing the game that the subtitles are in sync with the spoken words? Well in a mod that has no spoken words in without Fus the same thing would happen; since there are no spoken words the subtitles would not be played.

-SKSE- You've probably already gotten this one.

-Modern Bugs Brawl- Basically fixes a lot of issues with brawls and many mods kind of need this, especially the kinky ones. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24020/?

-UIExensions- This one's pretty helpful too, the name says it all. What it does is allow mods to have thier own UI interface. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57046/?

-Race Menu- This is a must.

---World beautification---

This one comes down to personal tastes, so I'll just throw in a few of my personal tastes.

-Skyrim Floral Overhaul- Makes Skyrim much more lush and fancy looking, but very flowery. I love it but others don't like all the flowers. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/141/?

-Purity 2- This does so much I can't even begin to make it short enough. Click this link and read up. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65242/?

-True Storms- Very nice improvements to, you guessed it, storms. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63478/?

---NPC Beautification---

One word; Bijin. No that's a lie but those are some of the best out their, but there's others that supplement what left out by his.

-Bijin Wives- Check out the rest of these, Warmaidens and NPCs, links on mod page. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63473/?

-JH People- This is a set of Korean mods for npcs, has a few dependencies, but covers a ton, I mean a literal ton of NPCs. http://nsfwmods.com/files/file/110-jh-people-npc-cosmetic-surgery-englishkoreajapanese-ver-integration-pack/

-Facelight plus- Most of the time you see pictures of babes in Skyrim they have this little mod on them. It sounds silly, but it works wonders. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71063/?

---Gameplay---

-Ordinator- This reworks the perk trees and give you a ton more options, makes many of the vanila skills way more usefull and fun. I can't play without this anymore.

-Apocalypse Spell Package- Adds a ton of new and awesome spells to Skyrim leveled lists and vendors. Another can't play without mod for me, just make sure to grab the patch if you use it with ordinator. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16225/?

-Individualized Shout Cooldowns- Name says it all. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52648/?

-Alternate Start - Live Another Life- Lets you start the game how you want to play. Plus helps out a lot when just making new charaters to try different mods out. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557/?

-Populated Cities Towns Villages- Theres a whole bunch of these that add generic NPCs all over the place, even an all in one, links on mod page. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/73147/?

---Executables---

You said that you didn't really want too many third party exe. stuff, but I'm going to advise these anyways.

-Bodyslide- Make your clothes fit you body and your body fit your tastes. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49015/?

-WryeBash- Make patches that are needed to get the stuff in your game, and a bazillion other things. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1840/?

-TESV Edit- A million uses, but most important lets you make merged patches. Not the most knowledable person about this, but basically when you mod an assest in Skyrim, say Lydia's sword in one mod, then her armor in another, and finally her face Skyrim has issues knowing what goes where and wich one wins out. A merged patch helps it figure out what's up. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25859/?

-FNIS- Without this no new animations. Without new animations you can't use Devious Devices. Without Devious Devices no BDSM. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11811/?

-Ordenador- Not to be confused with the mod, this is a tool that will help to compress texture files. Even with an outstanding rig, Skyrim gets bitchy when you start adding too many graphically heavy mods and will crash. This will help you to downsize some things that you don't need at 8BazzilionK resolution. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/?

---Followers---

There's so many out there I can only give a few actual NPCs to advise, but these first two are a most for better interaction.

-Relationship Dialogue Overhaul- Uses assets already in game to give followers much better dialogue. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/74568/?

-Immersive Amazing Follower Tweaks- Does a ton of stuff, basically lets you actually command, dress, ext. followers and have more than one at a time. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71689/?

-Inigo- Super awesome Kajit follower with tons of things to say about everything. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40960/?

-Vilja- Works very well with Inigo, they talk to each other and everything!

-Sofia- Another awesome custom voiced follower, she's one of my absolute favorites. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54527/?

---Skeletons-

-XPMSE32- I see you've looked at this a bit already, but let me explain a bit about it. You said you were a bit put off because you need FNIS for it. That's not completely true. The full download does in fact need it, but there's a lot more in that download than just the skeleton. What you absolutely need is the skeleton. I would recommend the whole thing, but if you don't want all the extra stuff then all you have to do is install it in MO, check it on the left window, but leave the right side esp. unchecked. That will give you the skeletons without the added bits. The reason it wants FNIS is there are tons of sustainable animations and weapon styles that you can set up in the MCM, but if you don't want that stuff you don't need it for the Skeleton to work.

Well, that's about all I have time for right now, I'm sure others have more or better suggestions, and I am by no way the best person to give advice. Hope this helps some.

ButchDiavolo · December 20, 2016

[snipped, because I can!]

::UPDATE:: I've mostly completed STEP prep (step 2E of 3) and everything seems mostly stable and appreciably improved. My only problem so far was a weird conflict between SKSE and Elys Alt-F4, but I came to realize Elys isn't required if you've installed ENBoost. Which was a previous step. Derp. Now I'm biting my nails over XP32 and its reliance on FNIS and my reluctance to run even more third-party executables... especially one with as many other dependent mods as FNIS.

Just a heads up... FNIS is ESSENTIAL if you want to use Sexlab mods. It is FNIS that makes the animations useable. Without FNIS, everyone will be in a t-pose and not move. At all.

The 3rd party mods that are basically essential are LOOT, FNIS, SKSE, TES5Edit (also called xEdit) and Wrye Bash. Dyndolod isn't essential, but is the ultimate beautification utility IMHO. So those are the ones you should get, install and use. The STEP guide has very clear and useful basic manuals on how to use them.

Another thing that is essential is a skeleton mod. XP32 or XPMSE32 are the most commonly used. XP32 is more basic; XPMSE32 is essential if you want to use physics. Personally I prefer XP32, mainly because I don't use the physics. But you must have a skeleton.

As BrimstoneOmega already said, if you want to use XPMSE32, just install it, activate it in the left pane, but don't activate the esp in the right pane of MO.

Forumsurfer79 · December 20, 2016

Well ... let´s make this quick n´dirdy ...

http://www.zhakaron.com/2016/04/relic-hunter-non-requiem-non-survival.html

6. http://skyrim-beautification-project.com/mods/mods/index.htm

7. http://skyrimgems.com/

8.

9. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76373/?

And you know whats the most difficult in this ???

NOT to get mad ...

Wolborg · December 20, 2016

The 3rd party mods that are basically essential are [---] and Wrye Bash.

I'm curious: why is WryeBash essential (apart from when you need to make a bashed patch)?

XPMSE32, just install it, activate it in the left pane, but don't activate the esp in the right pane of MO.

I would recommend to:

1. Double-click on "XP32 Maximum Skeleton Extended" in the mod list

2. Click on the tab "Optional ESPs"

3. Move "XPMSE.esp" from "Available ESPs" to "Optional ESPs"

Then the deactivated esp won't clutter the view in the plugins list.

IronPrimarch · December 20, 2016

I suppose I can throw in a bit of my life lessons learned in Skyrim modding, though I'm definitely not an expert or anything.

General Improvements

-USLEEP- Absolutely needed. There are no incompatibilities as long as this is like the very first thing in your left hand list.

-SKYUI- See you already have that.

-Fuz Ro D'oh- Others have mentioned this, but I don't know if they explained it well enough. It does not change any of the normal behavior of the games shouts or dialogue. What it does is something similar to FNIS only it involves custom shouts or dialogue. What it most noticeably does is gives NPCs the ability to speak in text format only; i.e. they will talk to you, their mouths move but no sound comes out, instead you get subtitles. Like I said this changes nothing about normal game play, but if a mod were to add dialogue somewhere this lets you actually see/read it. Have you noticed in playing the game that the subtitles are in sync with the spoken words? Well in a mod that has no spoken words in without Fus the same thing would happen; since there are no spoken words the subtitles would not be played.

-SKSE- You've probably already gotten this one.

-Modern Bugs Brawl- Basically fixes a lot of issues with brawls and many mods kind of need this, especially the kinky ones. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24020/?

-UIExensions- This one's pretty helpful too, the name says it all. What it does is allow mods to have thier own UI interface. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57046/?

-Race Menu- This is a must.

World Beautification

This one comes down to personal tastes, so I'll just throw in a few of my personal tastes.

-Skyrim Floral Overhaul- Makes Skyrim much more lush and fancy looking, but very flowery. I love it but others don't like all the flowers. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/141/?

-Purity 2- This does so much I can't even begin to make it short enough. Click this link and read up. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65242/?

-True Storms- Very nice improvements to, you guessed it, storms. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63478/?

NPC Beautification

One word; Bijin. No that's a lie but those are some of the best out there, but there's others that supplement what left out by his.

-Bijin Wives- Check out the rest of these, Warmaidens and NPCs, links on mod page. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63473/?

-JH People- This is a set of Korean mods for npcs, has a few dependencies, but covers a ton, I mean a literal ton of NPCs. http://nsfwmods.com/files/file/110-jh-people-npc-cosmetic-surgery-englishkoreajapanese-ver-integration-pack/

-Facelight plus- Most of the time you see pictures of babes in Skyrim they have this little mod on them. It sounds silly, but it works wonders. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71063/?

Gameplay

-Ordinator- This reworks the perk trees and give you a ton more options, makes many of the vanila skills way more usefull and fun. I can't play without this anymore.

-Apocalypse Spell Package- Adds a ton of new and awesome spells to Skyrim leveled lists and vendors. Another can't play without mod for me, just make sure to grab the patch if you use it with ordinator. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16225/?

-Individualized Shout Cooldowns- Name says it all. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52648/?

-Alternate Start - Live Another Life- Lets you start the game how you want to play. Plus helps out a lot when just making new charaters to try different mods out. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557/?

-Populated Cities Towns Villages- Theres a whole bunch of these that add generic NPCs all over the place, even an all in one, links on mod page. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/73147/?

Executables

You said that you didn't really want too many third party exe. stuff, but I'm going to advise these anyways.

-Bodyslide- Make your clothes fit you body and your body fit your tastes. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49015/?

-WryeBash- Make patches that are needed to get the stuff in your game, and a bazillion other things. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1840/?

-TESV Edit- A million uses, but most important lets you make merged patches. Not the most knowledable person about this, but basically when you mod an assest in Skyrim, say Lydia's sword in one mod, then her armor in another, and finally her face Skyrim has issues knowing what goes where and wich one wins out. A merged patch helps it figure out what's up. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25859/?

-FNIS- Without this no new animations. Without new animations you can't use Devious Devices. Without Devious Devices no BDSM. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11811/?

-Ordenador- Not to be confused with the mod, this is a tool that will help to compress texture files. Even with an outstanding rig, Skyrim gets bitchy when you start adding too many graphically heavy mods and will crash. This will help you to downsize some things that you don't need at 8BazzilionK resolution. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/?

Followers

There's so many out there I can only give a few actual NPCs to advise, but these first two are a most for better interaction.

-Relationship Dialogue Overhaul- Uses assets already in game to give followers much better dialogue. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/74568/?

-Immersive Amazing Follower Tweaks- Does a ton of stuff, basically lets you actually command, dress, ext. followers and have more than one at a time. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71689/?

-Inigo- Super awesome Kajit follower with tons of things to say about everything. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40960/?

-Vilja- Works very well with Inigo, they talk to each other and everything!

-Sofia- Another awesome custom voiced follower, she's one of my absolute favorites. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54527/?

Skellybones

-XPMSE32- I see you've looked at this a bit already, but let me explain a bit about it. You said you were a bit put off because you need FNIS for it. That's not completely true. The full download does in fact need it, but there's a lot more in that download than just the skeleton. What you absolutely need is the skeleton. I would recommend the whole thing, but if you don't want all the extra stuff then all you have to do is install it in MO, check it on the left window, but leave the right side esp. unchecked. That will give you the skeletons without the added bits. The reason it wants FNIS is there are tons of sustainable animations and weapon styles that you can set up in the MCM, but if you don't want that stuff you don't need it for the Skeleton to work.

Well, that's about all I have time for right now, I'm sure others have more or better suggestions, and I am by no way the best person to give advice. Hope this helps some.

You may be no expert, but you're certainly more qualified than I.

General Improvements

USLEEP: figured that one out yesterday. Also figured out I was fearful over nothing.

SkyUI: Gosh, it's so purdy.

Fuz Ro D'oh: I see now. Installed it yesterday as well, without problems.

SKSE: Oh yeah. Definitely.

Brawl Bugs: Also part of STEP, just installed it today. Glad to hear it's so useful/important, because it was a cinch to toss in.

UIExtensions: Huh, thought MCM took care of that. I'll take a look.

RaceMenu: So I've gathered! So long as it's a simpler install than FNIS, I should be good haha

World Beautification

Skyrim Floral Overhaul: I was eyeballing this one, can't remember why I never pulled the trigger. Possibly because I was evaluating DynDOLOD instead.

Purity: Looks amazing, but is it compatible with Realistic Water Two? RWT is required for STEP Core, and I'm worried there'll be conflict.

True Storms: Wow. This looks amazing.

NPC Beautification

Holy shit, these mods are bitchin' (kill me pls, I can't stop punning)

Bijin Wives: Amazing. Definitely going on the list.

JH: These are beautiful too, but holy shit the English haha. I'm almost certain to muddle my way through, and likely to set up an account over there.

Facelight: Ingenious. Also going on the list.

Gameplay

Ordinator: I've heard a lot about this. Can't seem to find it though.

Apocalypse Spells: Holy shit I love magic.

Individualized Shout Cooldowns: Another one that's definitely going on the list.

Alternate Start - LAL: This is insanely popular. IDK if I want it or not, but I'll probably do the random start if I get it.

Populated CTV: This looks good. Maybe it'll give the dragons some fodder so essential NPCs don't die and prevent me from questing.

Executables (noooooo)

Bodyslide: Everyone says it. Looks like it's mandatory.

Wyre Bash: Doesn't MO do what Bash does?

TES5Edit: Got it. Didn't want to fiddle with it and couldn't figure out how to use FO4Edit on Skyrim, but I found a link to an old TES5Edit and was in business.

FNIS: Just got it tonight. Kind of confusing, but absolutely essential.

Ordenador: Oooh. This looks badass.

Followers

RDO: Dude, wouldn't you know it, I was eyeballing this too.

Immersive Amazing Follower Tweaks: That's pretty cool. I saw another mod that does this more realistically (Dialogue: "So... you know you're naked?"), but I seem to recall compatibility issues with that.

Inigo: Darn, I can't stand Khajiit. I might have to make an exception here.

Vilja: She's purrrdy.

Sofia: She's a little big in the jaw in that Liv Tyler sort of way, but I think I can see why she's your favorite.

Skellybones

XPMSE32: I opted for the outdated one for compatibility reasons, but I installed XP32 MS and FNIS together earlier today. Not nearly as terrifying as I feared, though I'm worried about future FNIS interaction. I'm probably fretting over nothing, but Gopher's tutorial on FNIS shows creating mods out of FNIS loose ends every time animations are included. Can I combine these loose ends in the same mod, or am I damned to a terrible fate in which I must clutter my modlist with separate FNIS loose-end mods?

This helps a ton, are you kidding? Thanks so much!

ButchDiavolo · December 20, 2016

UIExtensions: Huh, thought MCM took care of that. I'll take a look.

MCM is "just" AN extension of the UI. Some mods add their own extensions, so you will need this for those extensions to show up.

Skyrim Floral Overhaul: I was eyeballing this one, can't remember why I never pulled the trigger. Possibly because I was evaluating DynDOLOD instead.

SFO and DynDOLOD are not mutually exclusive. In fact, SFO has "billboards" in the optional files, which you can install, so DynDOLOD will Ermergershify SFO along with the rest of Skyrim.

Wyre Bash: Doesn't MO do what Bash does?

Well, yes... and no. Wrye bash was (is) a mod organizer before MO came on the scene. You could still use it as such of course. But now it is mainly used by MO users to create a "bashed patch". What that means is that Wrye Bash looks through all your installed mods and checks if things (leveled lists etc.) can be merged into a "helper mod" (=said bashed patch), so you can then deactivate the esp files of those merged mods and save mod space. Cos MO has a limit to the amount of mods you can install.

Inigo: Darn, I can't stand Khajiit. I might have to make an exception here.

Inigo is indeed a fun follower. He is custom voiced and a smart arse. And, well... purple! He is a Barney Khajiit! What is not to love? Besides, if you get tired of him following you around, you can send him back to his, um... special place.

[...]FNIS together earlier today. Not nearly as terrifying as I feared, though I'm worried about future FNIS interaction. I'm probably fretting over nothing, but Gopher's tutorial on FNIS shows creating mods out of FNIS loose ends every time animations are included. Can I combine these loose ends in the same mod, or am I damned to a terrible fate in which I must clutter my modlist with separate FNIS loose-end mods?

The easiest way to deal with the FNIS output, is create a "fake" mod from the files in Overwrite (right-click > Create Mod) and name it FNIS Output. When you need to run FNIS again, you simple delete this "FNIS Output" mod and create a new one with the new files that will appear in Overwrite.

You can do something similar with SKSE files that end up in Overwrite (like Sexlab profile files). Create a "fake mod" called "SKSE Output" and put SKSE files in it. Every time a new SKSE file appears, you can simply drag&drop the file from the Overwrite window ONto the SKSE Output mod.

Same with TES5Edit (xEdit) files. Create a fake mod for those.

So: NO, don't combine the files from the Overwrite. Keep them in seperate mods, which are easier to maintain/ delete as needed.

IronPrimarch · December 20, 2016

Another thing that is essential is a skeleton mod. XP32 or XPMSE32 are the most commonly used. XP32 is more basic; XPMSE32 is essential if you want to use physics. Personally I prefer XP32, mainly because I don't use the physics. But you must have a skeleton.

As BrimstoneOmega already said, if you want to use XPMSE32, just install it, activate it in the left pane, but don't activate the esp in the right pane of MO.

Bugger. I already installed XP32. Uninstalls suck, but it sounds like I get better results out of XPMSE32. Done and done.

XPMSE32, just install it, activate it in the left pane, but don't activate the esp in the right pane of MO.

I would recommend to:

1. Double-click on "XP32 Maximum Skeleton Extended" in the mod list

2. Click on the tab "Optional ESPs"

3. Move "XPMSE.esp" from "Available ESPs" to "Optional ESPs"

Then the deactivated esp won't clutter the view in the plugins list.

Duly noted. XPMSE32 seems to be stuck extracting, so I'm gonna go to work and let it do its thing. I hope it'll be okay... :/

Yuriwa · December 20, 2016

Watch me, I'm about to mess up another quote. You might say I have a quota to fill, hehe.

Quote

[...]FNIS together earlier today. Not nearly as terrifying as I feared, though I'm worried about future FNIS interaction. I'm probably fretting over nothing, but Gopher's tutorial on FNIS shows creating mods out of FNIS loose ends every time animations are included. Can I combine these loose ends in the same mod, or am I damned to a terrible fate in which I must clutter my modlist with separate FNIS loose-end mods?

The easiest way to deal with the FNIS output, is create a "fake" mod from the files in Overwrite (right-click > Create Mod) and name it FNIS Output. When you need to run FNIS again, you simple delete this "FNIS Output" mod and create a new one with the new files that will appear in Overwrite.

You can do something similar with SKSE files that end up in Overwrite (like Sexlab profile files). Create a "fake mod" called "SKSE Output" and put SKSE files in it. Every time a new SKSE file appears, you can simply drag&drop the file from the Overwrite window ONto the SKSE Output mod.

Same with TES5Edit (xEdit) files. Create a fake mod for those.

So: NO, don't combine the files from the Overwrite. Keep them in seperate mods, which are easier to maintain/ delete as needed.

I've just put the output of FNIS inside the FNIS folder. Like, it outputs 3 folders, one of them being "meshes". If you open the FNIS mod, you actually see those same folders. So if you drag the overwrite output into the FNIS folder, it's a plain copy over job. So is it safe to copy over the original FNIS files? Well, I suppose so, as FNIS has generated these new files for a good reason. It generates them based on what is seen as appropriate when you run FNISforusers.exe. Just...the way MO happens to handle such a file generation happens to be by putting them into the overwrite folder. But that gets messy really fast, so you have to get rid of them.

So why not do as suggested and make a fake mod out of the overwrite folder's contents? Well, many different mods can generate overwrite folder content with the same name, and I want those new files to remain associated with the mod which generated it. Because one day I might want to deactivate one of these mods, and I couldn't very well deactivate my fake overwrite mod along with it, because it would also contain a variety of files from different mods. But I don't want these generated files to remain activated while the mod that generated them no longer is.

As an example, plenty of mods generate an "SKSE" folder in the overwrite folder. If you dig deeper into it you will find the actual mod's name, but the top level folder is often SKSE, because it's a script, or something like that.

There, I hope I didn't generate any confusion, and that I got it right, myself. Plenty of tips in this thread that I can use myself, btw, so thanks for that.

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